Asvaghosa's Gold

[Heisoku]

Mike Cross, a dharma heir of Gudo Nishijima has made his translations of the poems of Asvaghosa freely available at the link below.

http://mike-cross.buddhasasana.net/asvaghosas-gold/asvaghosas-gold.pdf

Gassho
Heisoku
Sat today.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

Lovely. Thank you.

I will also write him to offer gratitude. He worked on this for years. Chodo Cross is Taigu's Teacher and, with Nishijima Roshi, the translator of the full Shobogenzo.

These new translations are not strictly "Zen" works, by the way, but something from much earlier ...

Aśvaghoṣa (c. 80 – c. 150 CE) was an Indian philosopher-poet, born in Saketa in northern India to a Brahmin family. He is believed to have been the first Sanskrit dramatist, and is considered the greatest Indian poet prior to Kālidāsa. ... [Aśvaghoṣa] wrote an epic life of the Buddha called Buddhacarita (Acts of the Buddha) in Sanskrit. The monk I-tsing (Yijing) mentioned that in his time Buddhacarita was "...extensively read in all the five parts of India and in the countries of the South Sea (Sumātra, Jāva and the neighbouring islands). He clothed manifold notions and ideas in a few words which so delighted the heart of his reader that he never wearied of perusing the poem. Moreover it was regarded as a virtue to read it in as much as it contained the noble doctrine in a neat compact form."

It described in 28 chapters the whole Life of the Buddha from his birth until his entry into Parinirvāna. During the Muslim invasions of the 10th – 12th centuries, half of the original Sanskrit text was lost. Today, the second half only exists in Chinese and Tibetan translations.

He also wrote Saundarananda, a kāvya poem with the theme of conversion of Nanda, Buddha's half-brother, so that he might reach salvation. The first half of the work describes Nanda's life, and the second half of the work describes Buddhist doctrines and ascetic practices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C5%9Bvagho%E1%B9%A3a

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhacarita

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Mp]

Wonderful, thank you Heisoku. =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[Byokan]

Wow! Deep bows to his practice and dedication. Thank you for the link, Heisoku

Gassho
Lisa
sat today

[Myosha]

Hello,

Looking to a "therapeutic snail’s pace . . .".

Thank you for the link.


Gassho
Myosha sat today

[Geika]

Thank you, and to the effort of Mike Cross.

Gassho, sat today

[Getchi]

thankyou for the link, am reading now.

sattoday

[Washin]

Thank you for sharing the link.

Gassho
Sergey
st

[Tai Shi]

I will look for this book, and would just say, deep bows.

Elgwyn
sat today
Gassho _/|\_

[Kyonin]

This is so beautiful.

Thank you for posting the link. It will take me a while to read it, but I am already into it.

Gassho,

Kyonin
#SatToday